Cherry and Lemon Crisp

As I mentioned in Friday’s top ten two weeks ago, I froze fresh cherries in an effort to save them and bake something, such as cherry pie. After searching for a cherry pie recipe and reading through a few, I realized that fresh cherries aren’t used in cherry pies and in fact sour cherries are and they are only in season for one week out of the entire year. Or something ridiculous like that.

So instead I decided to make Brown Eyed Baker’s cherry crisp but with a twist. We had a lemon leftover from when we made the easy baked lobster tails and Mike was like “why not add some lemon?” I was like heck yeah! I love lemon and especially enjoy it in desserts. Thus Cherry and Lemon Crisp was born. I had everything on hand for this recipe except for the pecans and it was super easy to make. Plus it makes about 6 servings so you’re not left with 20 servings and chowing down on sweets all week long (not that it’s a bad thing ;) ).

2. Whisk together the flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Add the butter pieces and toss to coat with flour. Use your hands to mix the butter and the mixture should be crumbly and resemble wet sand. Fold in the pecans. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

3. Spray an 8 x 8 baking dish with cooking spray. Mix the cherries, raw sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Place the cherries in the baking dish. Once the crumble topping has cooled, add to the cherries and distribute evenly.

4. Bake for 40 minutes and then increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F and cook for 5 minutes. Keep an eye on the crisp for the last 5 minutes to make sure the edges don’t burn. Enjoy with some Greek vanilla frozen yogurt!